The Book of Salt : A Novel

Rating:
Summary: Delicious!
Review: A book to be savored a few pages at a time; chewed and digested slowly like a fabulous meal. More than just "a read," THE BOOK OF SALT is an experience that involves all five senses -- and a sixth sense, if you possess it.

Among other things, Binh is the Vietnamese cook of Alice B. Toklas and Gertrude Stein. He is also an intellectual, a lover, a dreamer, a son, a man. We are privy to his inner life, insofar as he wishes us to be, both humorous and sad.

The story is told in almost poetic fashion; each word is savored for its own merit, and, like the ingredients of any fine cuisine, craftily blended to perform the perfect meal. It is more than satisfying; it is exquisite.

There is no more to tell about Binh; Truong has said it all. But there must be plenty of other fascinating characters lurking about in Truong's brilliant mind. Surely there's more! We await her next story excitedly, like children at bedtime.

Rating:
Summary: DEBUT BY A UNIQUELY GIFTED AUTHOR
Review: Debut novelist Monique Truong appears blessed with a delightfully fecund imagination. Of her cooking the Saigon born author says, "I cook for pleasure. I cook to experience something new.....I always cook or rather I always 'taste' the food first in my mind. I approach a recipe like a story. I imagine it. Sometimes I have a dream about it, then I go about crafting it."

From her description most of us would relish joining her at table. Fortunately, all of us can join her through the pages of her poignant and mesmerizing first novel "The Book Of Salt." Inspiration for this fictional memoir was found as Truong was reading the Alice B. Toklas Cook Book, and ran across references to Indochinese men who cooked for Toklas and Gertrude Stein. Thus, Binh, Truong's protagonist and narrator was born.

The opening scene is the train station in 1934 Paris. While Toklas and Stein are going to America Binh's choice of destinations is not revealed. Will he go to America with the two formidable mesdames, stay on in Paris or return to his native Vietnam? As these possibilities are considered, Binh recalls his younger years, his ostracism for his sexual orientation, his nights in Parisian haunts, and his unhappy love affairs.

Weaving her tale between Binh's life and the fascinating goings-on in the Toklas/Stein household the author allows readers to savor numerous sumptuous meals and meet celebrities, including Paul Robeson and Ho Chi Mihn.

Sensuous, mouth-watering details enrich this artful examination of fascinating lives.. We await with eager anticipation the next offering from this uniquely gifted author.

- Gail Cooke

Rating:
Summary: Like a Poem
Review: I first checked this book out at the library. But by the second chapter, I knew I wanted to own my own copy. The writing is superb and even took my breath away at times!

Rating:
Summary: When words become a feast
Review: I have never so much enjoyed tasting and savoring (believe me nothing to do with food) words as I had with this book. The astute observations and descriptions are wonderfully wafted through the air, lazily floating down to rest in crevices that instantly mate, and are realized. Ms Truong could possibly write about grass growing and you would not notice nor care because her strength lies with her ability to make words sound like music and insights on the various rites of passages, emotions and lessons on a human "being" on a journey.

Rating:
Summary: strong 3 but overly-effusive language drowns story a bit
Review: The Book of Salt has as its premise a hook that is bound to grab those who like books about books or authors. Its narrator is "thin binh" as he is called by Gertrude Stein and the novel seems to promise an interior look at the lives of Stein and Toklas. Anyone searching for that book here will be disappointed, however. While there are some great moments of characterization with regards to the famous duo, they really are a minor sidestory. The story truly is Binh's--how he got from Vietnam to his position as cook to "the Steins" as he refers to them and what he will do while they head off to America. The fact that it is his story isn't necessarily a bad decision, but the reader looking for more on the literary/artistic world one first thinks of upon hearing Gertrude Stein needs to be forewarned.
That put aside, the Book of Salt is a good book, but one burdened somewhat by the author's predilection for soupy, dense language. If one wants to continue the food metaphor started by the author herself (and I promise to do so just this once), then the novel is overspiced, the author lacking a bit in the light deftness needed to be a superb cook. Some of the language is truly beautiful, some will sweep you along, but there is no moderation in its use and so the book often, though not always, sinks underneath its linguistic weight.
The plot is interesting and compelling enough. Binh's story is told through interrupted flashbacks which help maintain suspense and answers the reader would like to have our slowly teased out of the narrative--what happened to drive him from home, what happened to several of his relationships, what will happen when the Steins go to America--does he join them, stay in Paris, or return home in answer to his brother's request?
A few scenes are perhaps a bit contrived, the food metaphor more often so, but these are relatively minor flaws in the whole. Binh's character and that of his mother stand out as wonderful creations, three-dimensional characters for whom the reader truly feels something. And if the Steins are more often in the background, as mentioned, there are still some wonderfully telling moments, often small but sharp.
It's hard to fault a book too much for its effusiveness, especially one where the other elements such as plot and character are so solid, thus the strong three as the recommendation. And I would happily pick up a second book by the author in hopes that the same intensity of language is there if not its frequency. Well-recommended with a few caveats.

Rating:
Summary: Trompe d'oeil
Review: This book's wealth of detail, insight, and style are positively seductive. For the first 30 pages I kept asking myself if it was possible that a book could be so beautifully written. Unfortunately, the answer is complicated. The reason I couldn't place where the writing struck me is that it is beautiful while being profoundly false. Despite its charms, the book lacks a strong emotional or narrative thread, touching down where Truong wishes to spend time rather than where any kind of intellectual or emotional interest might take us. The whole book begins to smell of artifice well before the the end. Perhaps most grievously, this book is a Classic example of a middle-class person writing about poor people. Absolutely missing is any sense of the dirt, despair, and darkness of lives lived under the thumb of colonialism and racism. The poetic language in many ways betrays the detailed, lovely writing, exposing it as the fantasy of someone far distant from the world of which she writes. Ultimately, Truong comes off as a romantic poseur. A very convincing one, but you can smell the tin beneath the flowers.

Rating:
Summary: Stunning (4.5 stars)
Review: This was one of the most beautifully-written, multi-layered books I have read. The prose is so poetic and evocative that the reader can almost taste the dishes cooked by, feel the pain of, and conjure up the sights viewed by Binh, the narrator. The entire atmosphere of each scene is palpable and vivid. I would not describe this novel as fast-moving, although I read it quickly; each scene is as nuanced--with Binh's experiences, feelings, and memories often mingled together inseparably, yet coming to the surface individually at moments, like the flavors of the intricate meals Binh prepares. This is a book that will remain on my mind for a long while.

Rating:
Summary: Trompe d'oeil
Review: Truong's "The Book of Salt" is the first-person story of Gertrude Stein and Alice Toklas' live-in cook, a homosexual Vietnamese man with ghosts in his past and his head. Binh, though we never learn what his real name is, grows up poor, the child of a loving mother and tyrannical father. His older brother apprentices him in the kitchen of the Governor-General's house, a place where no one has value unless he is French, or speaks some. These early lessons resonate through his life, as he travels as a ship's cook and struggles to survive in Paris. His reflections on language and love are strange, the effect of the book troubling. Though we can hear Binh's voice, somehow we can never really see him; he is in hiding, lost.

Rating:
Summary: In total agreement with B. Capossere
Review: What B. Capossere posted in another review is dead on. The idea of the book is great but the writing is overly done. The author seems to never have a noun strong enough to stand on its own.



Rating:
Summary: A Beautiful Book
Review: With The Book of Salt, author Monique Truong has created a beautiful and fascinating glimpse into the lives of two of the most iconic lesbians to have ever lived: Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas. Yet, their story is not told through either of these amazing women, but instead through their Vietnamese cook, Bình-a young man struggling with many secrets and inner demons.

Having fled from Vietnam in disgrace, Bình finds himself in Paris. The year is 1929 and he has been through a succession of brief, miserable positions as a household cook. While perusing the help-wanted section, he spots an intriguing ad: "Two American ladies wish to retain a cook..." He decides to apply, and his life will never be the same.

Truong tells the story of Bình's life in a mosaic of scenes, moving back and forth chronologically, revealing a little at a time until the puzzle is complete. Through the telling, we are treated to an intimate glance into the private lives of Stein and Toklas. Truong's writing is gorgeous, almost poetic at times. You almost feel a sense of loss when you reach the final page. I highly recommend this book.